FASHION Magazine

By Emily Palonen

At the beginning of March, I landed my dream internship at FASHION Magazine. As if this wasn’t enough, I was given the incredible opportunity to experience, firsthand, the thrill and chaos of backstage and behind the scenes of L’Oréal Fashion Week Fall 2008 collections.

At FASHION, where no one sleeps and, of course, everyone wears stilettos. L’Oréal Fashion Week festivities began a week early, as the online team met with designers for video interviews to get the first look at the fashionable plans they had up their cashmere sleeves.

First up, we met with “The Jersey Boys of Toronto,” better known as Stephen Wong and Kirk Pickersgill, the designers behind Greta Constantine. Their Yorkville office had the expected clothing racks and a table full of Post-its for organizing the seating plan for their upcoming show. Wong and Pickersgill, who was wearing his signature bow tie, gave us a peek at the fall collection. After a few failed attempts to display the gorgeous chocolate-brown, backless, jersey cocktail dress on the mannequin, FASHION’s video project manager volunteered to model the gorgeous work of art.  It looked fabulous on, but jokes and laughter broke out when we noticed her underwear sticking out through the smooth material.  The designers teased that the dress has a built-in bodysuit for a reason – it’s meant to be worn “Sharon Stone–style.”

After the interview we made our way over to the InterContinental Hotel to pick up our media passes for L’Oréal Fashion Week and received a bag of goodies (by week’s end I had accumulated a lifetime supply of Schick Quattro razors).

Our next video date was with the fabulous Coco Rocha, at the Sutton Place Hotel, on the Monday morning of L’Oréal Fashion Week.  It was our first interview of the day, but Rocha had been up since the crack of dawn, booked solid with interviews all day.  Looking lovely in Joe Fresh Style and Common Cloth, the B.C. native was completely down-to-earth, funny and sweet. The second the cameras turned on, she instantly lit up and her natural beauty and talent shone.  Her big concern wasn’t opening the Joe Fresh Style show that night, but the condition of her precious puppy, who had been sick on the trip over. We caught a glimpse of the pup hiding in a carrying case in the lobby. So cute!

Before the Heart Truth Fashion Show, which raises awareness for women and heart disease, we ventured backstage to chat with the beauty gurus making the magic happen. Amidst the madness, we found Eric Del Monaco, lead hair stylist for L’Oréal Fashion Week, who was styling the famous strands of Catherine O’Hara, and Eddie Maleterre, lead makeup artist for the shows, working on eTalk co-host Tanya Kim. 

Our last designer interview was with the inspired Paul Hardy in his hotel room at the Sheraton Centre, which had a perfect view of the tent set up at Nathan Phillips Square.  His hotel room looked just as a designer’s should, with needles and thread, strips of lace and pelts of fur strewn everywhere.  Hardy described his experiences of the last few weeks with two words, “Gong Show”: the models were being flown in from Alberta and his original collection had been reworked that week. 

L’Oréal Fashion Week couldn’t have turned out better and even with permanent stiletto-shaped feet, I cannot wait for next season.  

Shown: The tent at Nathan Phillips Square. Photography by Emily Palonen.

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